Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 21 March, 2017

Don’t Sit Idle

JAANE BHI DO YAROAN

By Poonam I Kaushish

“Na mein khali baithunga, na main baithne doonga,” Indefatigable Prime Minister Modi’s new edict in a country where work is a dirty four letter word that has been erased from our collective psyche. He has hit bull’s  eye as all one needs is an excuse to sit khali. Never mind if it has perpetuated a vulturistic culture of the winner taking all!

Perhaps, it has something to do with our laid back attitude dictated by a don’t-care-a-damn thinking and chalta hai outlook! Nothing stands testimony to our abysmal work ethics as the daily happenings in our temple of democracy Parliament. The anguish is understandable as figures of the number of hours lost in disruption in both Houses during last years appalling iced out winter session says it all.

Scandalously, Lok Sabha lost 91 hours and 59 minutes and sat only for 19 hours and 26 minutes whereas the Rajya Sabha lost 86 hours (it sat for 22 hours). Busy as the Opposition was in shouting slogans, creating pandemonium and obstructing proceedings by rushing into the well of the House. While the Treasury Benches uses its brute majority to push through legislative agenda. A daily nautanki for 100 days that Parliament works.

The discussion on notebandi is a case in point. After raising a big stink only 14 MPs were in the Rajya Sabha to participate in the discussion on the issue, that too after suspending the House’s business and after the Chairman repeatedly kept ringing the quorum bell as very few members were present.

All busy partaking food and enjoy spicy gup-shup in the Central Hall. Smug in the knowledge that they had earned their Rs 2000 per day allowance by signing their attendance in the notice office! Bringing things to such a pass that Parliament has been reduced to one per cent inspiration and 99% perspiration!

What should on say of our ‘steel frame’ babudom. His DNA underscores the State’s ennui.  A Government of India car drives into Delhi’s famous Lodi garden at 6.30am, the ‘saab’ instructs his driver to stay ‘right here’. Nothing wrong. Yes, there is. Who call’s a driver at 6.30am when the drive is less than a km from his Lutyens zone bungalow? Bluntly, the saab is the law and cares tuppence.

This is not the only instance of non-work trend. The normal working day in Government offices is of eight hours, with a one-hour lunch break. But from the moment employees drift into their offices, Modi or no Modi, tea time begins and continues every hour before lunch and again thereafter till the clock strikes pack-up time.

They have ‘work’ in other offices. The commuter has his plea of arriving late and leaving early. And yet, there is no dearth of overtime, hogs trying to put in work beyond normal hours for a little money. French leave apart, there are Roman holidays --- long lunch sojourns with pretty PAs or other woman colleagues. Extending over two long hours.

Questionably, can a poor nation afford this luxury of aaraam, aaraam and more aaraam?  Can one live life king-size while fighting for survival? But, ki pharak painda hai! Think. Out of 365 days, the Government works a five-day week. This translates into 104 week-end holidays. Earned leave 30 days, medical leave 56, casual leave 12, gazetted holidays 17 and restricted ones 30. A grand total of 249 days of khali baithna, leaving just 116 working days! For women there is an additional 90 days of maternity leave.

The less said the better of the police aka policewallah goonda. An obscurantist force often rivaling politicians with its fair share of crooks, criminals and cheats. A majority of who work on the dictum, show me the face I will show you the rule. Which translates into grease my palms else I will read you the riot act and how!

From the traffic cop to the inspector there’s no questioning them. All infamous for their inertia, opacity and inefficiency. They can stall a decision, dodge an arrest, ‘fail in finding’ a culprit or slow down a file, earning it the ignominy of being one of the world's most dangerous animal.

It’s simply a system’s failure! They collectively coo. Who failed the system? Not the politician or the bureaucrat. All point an accusing finger at each other. Nevertheless, everyone is agreed that there is something rotten in the State of Denmark!  

This is not all. A recent survey has red flagged important issues. More than 52% of working professionals in India do not enjoy their work and do not look forward to new challenges at work. About 29% of the work force in both organised as well as unorganised sectors feels that wasting time at work has become an unwritten office culture.

Add to this, the foundation of finding passion in work is lacking amongst us. Consequently, family, home, friends compulsions or peer pressure compel people not to put their best foot forward. On the obverse the same desis excel abroad because systems are in place and there is accountability for non performance. They have effective productivity programmes

Given the lackadaisical approach to work, there is growth of corrupt practices, especially on part of the State, police and authorities. A while back the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy ranked our civil service as Asia’s worst, a 9.21 rating out of 10, worse than Vietnam (8.54), Indonesia (8.37), Philippines (7.57) and China (7.11), adding officials accept under-the-table payments, are rarely held accountable and are the root cause of mistrust towards the Government.

True, none faults the desire to break free from the rough and tumble of contemporary existence. However, there are no free lunches in life and lack of honesty, work culture is retarding India's growth. The forebodings are in the air: rising prices, over-population, urban decay and proliferating of slums. Normal life is disrupted at the outbreak of any festering conflict.

Clearly, the writing is on the wall. It is time we the people collectively shrug off inertia and restores professionalism based on absolute, not obsolete principles. Our leaders and civil servants must give serious thought collectively of removing administrative deficiencies, expose political malfunctioning and restore the system.

It needs to internalize the zero tolerance principle and US’s “sunset principle”, whereby, any Governmental activity is all the time under scrutiny so that no acts of misdemeanour take place. The Government must downsize from the Secretary to chaprasi. Non-performing officers would be forcibly retired at the end of 20 years service, alternatively, ruthlessly dumped.

What next? Time we adopted the practice world-wide whereby a five-day week translates into loads of hard work. Alas, we Indians yearn for El Dorado. But we are not prepared to lift a finger for it. It is time now to decide whether we mean business or not.  When you like your work every day then why sit idle?

Unfortunately, most Indians do not care. Absence of national character and indiscipline has led to a creeping paralysis of ‘sab chalta hai’. NaMo has a hard task ahead to get a nation of lotus eaters to work. Given that a nation that remains idle will grow weary. Can young India afford to remain khali and continue to revel in mediocrity? ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)